Saffron party's Mumbai team ensures complete victory in Surat's 16 seats

Mumbai: According to Gujarat assembly poll results declared on Monday, the BJP has won all 16 seats in Surat. The victory is due in large part to the BJP Mumbai team, which, under the leadership of BJP city chief Ashish Shelar, participated in the election campaign for Surat. The winning team comprised up to 500 party leaders, state ministers, MLAs and MPs.

Following the declaration of Gujarat election results, BJP workers at state headquarters celebrated the party’s Surat victory by distributing sweets and dancing to the beat of dhols. President Shelar and all India general secretary Raghunath Kulkarni too participated in the celebrations. A board was put up in front of the BJP party office mentioning Saamana, which is the Sena mouthpiece. Mr Shelar pointed out that the Sena fought elections independently in Gujarat and lost while BJP MP Kirit Somaiyya added that at least now, the Sena would realise the power of PM Narendra Modi.

Along with Mr Shelar and Mr Somaiyya, others such as minister Prakash Mehta, Heena Gavit, MLA Mangalprabhat Lodha, Yogesh Sagar, Raj Purohit, Atul Shah, Madhav Bhandari, Rahendra Phadke and Sunil Karjatkar, too, participated in the election campaign in various parts of Gujarat for two months. There were many challenges.

The Congress was targeting BJP over issues such as GST, demonetisation, and reservation for the Patidar community. “But we managed things and won seats in the Surat area,” Mr Shelar told The Asian Age.

He added, “The Congress used bad language in the campaign and brought together Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakur and Jignesh Mevani for a ‘race with three legs’. Still, PM Modi’s development ‘bullet train’ won the elections.”